Ainslie –the most successfulOlympic sailor in history, with five medals –is captain of theLand Rover BAR sailing team and has a penchant for come-from-behind victories.

艾恩斯利是有史以来最成功的奥林匹克航海家，总共获得了5枚奥运奖牌。他也是路虎本·艾恩斯利帆船队(Land Rover BAR)的船长，他经常在比赛中后来居上，最终取得胜利。

On the final day of racing in Oman inFebruary, the winds were light. In the first two of three heats, Ainsliemisjudged the winds and steered his yacht over the start line too quickly – afault of a mere 12cm the first time and 10cm the second. The penalty meant hehad to let the other boats pass him.

在阿曼站比赛的最后一天，风力很弱。当天的预赛共分三轮，艾恩斯利在前两轮中误判了风速，驾驶帆船过快地越过了起点线——第一次的错误只有12厘米，第二次也只有10厘米。由于遭到惩罚，他只能让其他船超过自己。

But the third heat changed everything. Withthe wind still barely blowing, Ainslie fought from third place to first, andthe victory was enough for his team to clinch the entire event.

但第三轮预赛改变了一切。尽管风力仍然很弱，艾恩斯利还是从第三名跃升到第一名，这场胜利足以让他的团队赢得整场赛事。

Looking back now, Ainslie said there’s a bigreason his team managed the win. As captain, Ainslie was quick to takeresponsibility for the first two faults, and that meant his team could move onto the third heat without blame hanging over them.

回顾当时的情况，艾恩斯利表示，他的团队之所以能够取胜，源自一个重要原因：作为船长，艾恩斯利很快为前两轮的错误主动承担了责任，使得整个团队可以全力以赴参加第三轮预赛，而不必背负心理压力。

“I could have had a group of guys looking at me in frustration. Butwe have guys who understand it’s OK to make mistakes,”said Ainslie. “My guys know, if you push and fail, it doesn’t have to bethe end.”

“我的团队本来有可能会失望地看着我。但他们都明白犯错没什么大不了。”艾恩斯利说，“我们团队的人都知道，如果你努力后仍然失败了，那也未必是最终的结局。”

That’s not an easy task for most leaders.Admitting you’re the reason something went wrong, owning up to the fact thatyour department or company failed is tough. But sucking it up, coming forwardand learning from the experience is the hallmark of a great manager.

但对多数领导者来说，这却并非易事。承认某个错误是自己导致的，并毫不犹豫地接受自己的部门或公司的失败，的确是件很困难的事情。但停止抱怨，奋勇向前，并从失败中吸取教训，是一个优秀管理者的重要特征。

Accepting mistakes

接受错误

It’s human nature for people to want totake credit for what went right and shift blame for what went wrong, saidOliver Donoghue, managing director and co-founder of the Nonstop RecruitmentSchweiz AG talent agency in Prague. In many companies, that creates a culturewhere nobody wants to take responsibility for fear of being punished.

布拉格人才中介公司Nonstop Recruitment Schweiz AG总经理兼联合创始人奥利佛·多诺霍(OliverDonoghue)表示，多数人都希望将成功归功于自己，将错误归咎于别人，这是人性使然。很多公司都形成了因为担心遭到惩罚，而没人敢于承担责任的文化。

“What you need to learn is that it’s not the mistakesthat define you,”Donoghue said, “it’s what you do with them.”

“你必须明白，起决定性作用的不是错误，”多诺霍说，“而是你如何应对错误。”

Nearly every type of team has the sameproblem with taking responsibility when things go awry, said Jan Hagen,associate professor at ESMT business school in Berlin. Hagen has studied thereactions of different people – from office workers to flight crews –that arefaced with stress. In cockpits, he found that crew members often won’t reportproblems to the captain out of an innate anxiety associated with delivering badnews.

柏林ESMT商学院副教授简·哈根(Jan Hagen)表示，几乎每种类型的团队在承担失败的责任时都会面临相同的问题。哈根研究了不同人——从办公室员工到空勤人员——面对压力时的反应。在驾驶舱内，他发现空勤人员经常因为害怕传达坏消息而不向机长汇报问题。

In the business world, middle managersoften keep their heads down when things go wrong, fearing that reporting aproblem means they’ll take the blame, Hagen said. “It’s never easyto admit to a problem, even in a great organisation,”he said.

哈根表示，在商业领域，中层管理人员往往会在出现问题时保持低调，担心汇报问题会令自己承担责任。“承认问题从来都不是一件容易的事情，即便是在伟大的组织里也不例外。”他说。

The problem with this system of denial isthat you lose out on the chance to learn from the mistake, Hagen said. Instead,after admitting to a failure, analyse what went wrong, which will help youfigure out how to avoid it next time.

哈根认为，如果人人都不敢承担责任，就会失去从错误中吸取经验教训的机会。相反，承认失败之后，便可分析问题的根源，有助于找到避免再次犯错的方法。